Women We Love: Ingrid Loyau-Kennett

As Australians woke to the news of the murder of a man believed to be a soldier in broad daylight on a suburban London street, one witness's remarkable story began to emerge.

Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, 48, was on a passing bus in the south-eastern suburb of Woolwich when she saw a body lying in the road and got off the bus to administer first aid.

She told the UK’s Guardian newspaper: "Then a black guy with a black hat and a revolver in one hand and a cleaver in the other came over... I spoke to him for more than five minutes. I asked him why he had done what he had done."

As the man described his motivation for the attack – he said the victim was a British soldier who had killed Muslim women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan – more people began to gather. Ingrid kept him and his accomplice talking to keep them occupied.

"I went to speak to the other man who was quieter and more shy. I asked him if he wanted to give me what he was holding in his hand, which was a knife, but I didn't want to say that."

With nothing more that she could do to help, Ingrid boarded her bus as the police arrived, shooting both suspects.

"There were so many women screaming and crying on the bus, it took me a minute to calm them down," said Ingrid. "I didn't have a moment to think of myself."

Ingrid's son, Basil Baradaran, tweeted: "My mum is a motherfucking badass."

We can't help but agree.